My Instructor’s Top 4 Driving Tips Still Keep Me Safe on Tri-Cities Roads

The quick and dirty tips: 

1. Stop slowly with enough room between you and the car in front of you.
2. Give truck drivers room and respect.
3. Drive defensively, but confidently.

Keep reading to learn more specific tips and why these things matter.

I was a little late in learning to drive compared to my classmates, who were getting licenses by age 16. There were a few reasons for this, but a large part of it was feeling intimidated by the dangers and responsibility of being in control of a vehicle that could easily kill people. As a result, I didn't start my driving lessons until I was 18, although I got my permit a year before.

My driving instructor was a wonderful man that we'll call Bill. Bill was a former trucker, having spent over a decade driving semis on long hauls across the country. He had a very fatherly kind of presence about him, and by the end of my first driving lesson with him, I felt completely comfortable with his guidance.

Bill taught me a lot of things about driving (obviously), but there are a few tips I picked up from him that I still specifically remember, and practice, to this day.

Do Bill's tips work? I believe so, and in 20+ years I've been driving since, I've only been in two accidents as a driver. The first accident was during my driving training with Bill, due to a miscommunication ("hammer down" meant "go faster," not "hit the brakes," it turned out). The second accident happened a few years later, when I was rear-ended by an undercover cop who was at 100% fault.

So let me share those tips with you in hopes of slightly safer roads out here in Tri-Cities.

Driving tip #1: When you stop behind a car, you should see the bottom of their tires.

Forget about calculating car lengths at a stop: this is a simple visual aid that will give you enough buffer room between your car and the one in front of you.

When you come to a complete stop, you should be able to see the bottom of the tires of the car in front of you - that is, where their tires touch the pavement - over your dashboard. Sitting up straighter or peering forward doesn't count. Bill explained that this gives enough room between the cars that if someone hits you from behind, you're unlikely to smash into the person in front of you. It also gives you enough room to move forward slightly if necessary to let a car behind you pass (or get that tailgater off your rear).

This tip genuinely saved me a lot of pain in my second accident - I was rear-ended at almost 40 miles per hour while I was at a complete stop, but only 'tapped' the bumper of the car in front of me.

Driving tip #2: You should brake so smoothly you barely feel the car 'jolt'.

This advice is actually easier to follow in today's cars than it used to be, thanks to advanced braking and suspension systems. Still, most drivers brake too "hard."

Bill explained that a good stop should be smooth. Momentum and physics mean that when you apply the brakes, you will feel a jolt backward as the vehicle's forced to come to zero. This jolt is stronger when you have to slam the brakes, as many drivers have experienced first hand. By slowing down gradually, this jolt is reduced. This technique is known as "progressive braking."

This technique is good for reducing the wear on your car, but it also lets you keep the car in better control when stopping - as a sudden stop can cause your tires to slide due to friction.

Driving tip #3: Don't fuck with semis.

You'd expect no less than this advice (and this language) from a former trucker.

When I started lessons with Bill, I already had a fairly healthy respect for semis on the road. Part of this was that one of our family friends was a trucker, but largely it was because I'd developed an oddball fascination with tractor-trailers. (Look, my mother worked in insurance for independent truckers, okay?)

Bill gave me a few tangible points of information about truck driving, though, that gave me a realistic guideline for how to drive around semis. That includes knowing trucker's blind spots - which are larger than you think (it's more than just being able to see their mirrors). It also means appreciating how long it takes for truckers to speed up or slow down. Stopping a truck takes planning, which means a truck is less likely to hit their brakes and more likely to roll over you if you cut in front of them.

Besides, if you're courteous to truckers - who often have to fight for the right to merge or turn in traffic - you'll get a lot of smiles, waves, and nods in return. Isn't that worth something?

Driving tip #4: Confidence is the best driving trait you can have.

I have general anxiety disorder, so being nervous is on a professional skill level for me. When I was a new driver, this was a hundred times worse. I'd avoid bridges and barricades, brake on blind curves, and slow down if I saw a car on a side street intersection.

Bill did what any good dad does when teaching a kid something isn't scary: he made me do it anyway, even when I had tears sliding down my cheeks.

Defensive driving is an important strategy to learn, but you can overdo it. Take my mother for instance - if someone pulls up on a side street intersection, she will slam her brakes. That's not just being cautious, that's putting other drivers at risk. When you don't drive with confidence, you drive unsafely, and that endangers everyone on the road.

Driving with confidence is a learned skill. You have to naturally distrust other drivers - that's the defensive part - but you also have to trust that most of them will be following the rules of the road. A bad accident can rob you of this confidence, too - but take it from personal experience, you can recover with time and support.

I guess confidence isn't just sexy, it can be life saving.

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What do you still remember from drivers' ed?

There are a million little aspects of driving that we have to learn as new drivers, from seatbelts and mirrors to signals and speed. If there's something that's stuck with you all this time though, there might be a reason. Next time you're out on the road, appreciate those classes and instructors - and maybe give that student driver a little extra room on the road.

Below, read even more tips from local drivers!